The Chicago Bulls have a lot to work on as evidenced by their performance this year, but not so more on defense where they rank in the bottom five. Head coach Jim Boylen, however, knows exactly what to o to help his team improve on that end.
Out of 30 NBA teams, the Bulls are ranked 25th with a defensive rating of 112.3. Boylen, who took over the head coaching position last December, recently outlined his defensive plans for the last few games and up to the next season. For him, good team defense starts with good individual defense.
“I think there’s a willingness and togetherness that needs to happen at the defensive end,’’ Boylen told Joe Cowley of the Chicago Sun-Times.
“From a player standpoint, from a coaching standpoint – and we always have to evaluate, ‘Are we in the best defensive schemes for the personnel we have, and their strengths, who they are?’ I know one thing – we’re going to spend a lot of time on our individual defense in the post and on the perimeter next year. I want us to get better individually now.”
He added that individual defense entails the capacity to stop the post one-on-one as well as matching up with your man. If a bunch of players are able to do this, then the defensive schemes won't have to rely on double-teams which creates all sorts of holes in the defense.
The Bulls have a 21-54 record for 13th place in the East. Their win-loss record alone shows that they have a lot to work on in the offseason.
Jim Boylen certainly has lots of problems to fix. But as they say, the step in solving a problem is to identify it — and Boylen has done that. The next step, as the Bulls coach specified, is to apply the appropriate solution.
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